Halseyd1207.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE “D” Detroit in the New Millennium Contemplating a Post-Post-Modern City by Douglas William Halsey of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture in Architecture MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY Bozeman, Montana November 2007 ©Copyright by Douglas William Halsey 2007 All Rights Reserved ii APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Douglas William Halsey This thesis has been read by each member of the thesis committee and has been found to be satisfactory regarding content, English usage format, citations, bibliographic style, and consistency, and is ready for submission to the Division of Graduate Education. Christopher Livingston, Committee Chair Approved for the Department of Architecture Steven Juroszek Approved for the Division of Graduate Education Dr. Carl A. Fox iii STATEMENT OF PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis inpartial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Montana State University, I agree that the Library shall make it available to borrowers under rules of the Library. If I have indicated my intention to copyright this thesis by including a copyright notice page, copying is allowable only for scholarly purposes, consistent with “fair use” as prescribed in the U.S. Copyright Law. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this thesis in whole or in parts may be granted only by the copyright holder. Douglas William Halsey November 2007 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Pre-Automotive History_________________ 01 The Modern__________________________ 05 The Post-Modern______________________ 13 The Post-Post-Modern_________________ 29 Programming_________________________ 41 Site Analysis Aerotropolis_________________ 43 Site Analysis Airport____________________ 46 Site Analysis Packard #10_________________ 49 Site Analysis : Zoning_____________________53 Neighborhood Analysis___________________57 Climate Analysis________________________65 Bibliography__________________________ 66 Endnotes_____________________________70 Image Appendix________________________75 v INTRODUCTION “Detroit will resolve into one of the greatest “The Motor City.” industrial is- lands on Earth. “Motown.” With immense supplies of iron “The Automotive Capital of the World.” and copper to the north, coal The connection between Detroit and the American automobile industry is indisput-to the south, able. Perhaps no other city in the world is as connected with a single industry as Detroithe Detroitt. For seventy years Detroit enjoyed the prosperity that the booming auto industry created.River in front Between 1900 and 1950 the Detroit population swelled from 285,700 to nearly two andmillion. canals on either end, the By 2000 that number had fallen to less than a million. city cannot miss.” -E.B. Ward, has created a modern shrinking city. The gradual decline has created a ghost town ofearly sort Detroits, with much of its building stock deserted and awaiting demolition. Crime plagues theindustrialist, city; poverty and illiteracy are common. Civil War era Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, the “Big Three,” as they are known, are each facing desperate times. Their future is unclear. What is becoming apparent however is the demise of the production industry itself. The prospect of Detroit as an automobile producer Motor City is no more. The emerging nickname is the “D.” What does the future hold for the “D?” PRE-AUTOMOBILE HISTORY The Great Lakes region of central North America was formed over the millennia by repeated glaciations moving down from the north and then receding. Eleven thousand years ago, the last ice age ended which opened up the great lakes area for human settlement. Nomadic peoples developed villages in what is now southeastern Michigan. Tribes and clans rose and fell leaving traces of their existence along the con- ans saw the area, the Iroquois Tribe was in control. French fur traders moved through the region for forty years before Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac establishes a fort on “le Detroit” or “the strait” of a river linking ment struggled with Indian skirmishes and lack of interest from new set- tlers. French style ribbon farms extend north and south from the river allowing each farmer access to the water. The names of the farmers will someday grace the streets of a modern city; Beubien, St. Aubien, Chene. The British took control of het fort in 1763 after the Treaty of Paris was signed. For thirty three years they ruled the city, building a new fort but little else. The United States claimed the city in 1796. In 1805, Detroit burned to the ground. The city motto is written, “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus” or, “We hope for better days; it shall rise again from its ashes.”1 1 Satellite imagery of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. 1763 Map of French Settlement and Original Fort 2 Judge Augustus Woodward, inspired by the plan for Washingto n D.C. proposes a radial street plan for the new city. A series o f “circuses” were joined by radiating spokes. Today Woodward, Michigan, Fort, Grand River, Jef- ferson, and Gratiot are part o f the original plan. The hear t of the city is created at their intersection at Campu s Martius and Grand Circus. Woodward’s plan was halted in 1823 when the Ju dge was reappointed to Florida from Michigan “History is more by President James Monroe. 2 Later street developments fo llowed a more or less the bunk. We want to live typical Jeffersonian grid plan compromised by the old layout . Woodward’s plan in the present intended to focus downtown, bu t by the latter half of the tw entieth century the and the only history that is attention had shifted outwards to the suburbs. worth a tinker’s damn is the his- tory we make From 1837 until 1847 Detroitserved as the Capital of the n ewly today.” formed state of Michigan. 3 The University of Michigan w as established at the -Henry Ford same time.4 Soon the capital would move to Lansing, and the University to Ann Chicago Tribune 1916 revolution of 1850 established Detroit as a manufacturing an d shipping area. Its strategic location on the Detr oit River established it as a shipping center. The population of the city surged to over 26,000 making it the 2 3rd largest city in the U.S.5 In the 1890’s a young engineer with the Edison Illumination Company, Henry Ford, began designing fo ur wheeled self-propelled vehi cles he named the “quadricycle.”6 to the formation of the Detroi t Automobile Company. Soon ho wever, disputes within the Board of Directors led Ford to start a new compan y he simply titled the Ford Motor Company. 7 1896 Henry Ford designed “Quadricycle” 3 Judge Augustus Woodward’s Original Plan for Detroit. The plan as seen at Grand Circus and Campus Martius 4 THE FIRST 50 YEARS OF THE AUTOMOBILE : THE MODERN Henry Ford realized, that inorder to stand out in the sea of auto makers in Detroit, he would have to reach a mass audience. Taking the to the States modern notion of the machine, Ford enacted a plan to revolutionize the in 1924...two things stagger entire process of manufacturing. Through mass production techniques, my imagination: Buffalo’s grain elevators and bring the automobile to the masses. In 1910 Ford opened the Highland Albert Kahn in Park plant8 designed by Albert Kahn. Kahn had already made a name for Detroit.” himself during the previous decade with The Packard Motor Car Com- -Erich Mendelsohn 9 The increased plant. Ford exploited this system to great effect in Highland Park mak- a larger plant within ten years. The River Rouge plant, also designed by “the most Albert Kahn came to epitomize the modern condition. Here on a one thousand acre site, Ford and Kahn’s vision came to its zenith. Production monument in America” assembly lines were built into massive single story structures enhancing -Vanity Fair describing the River Rouge task of glass manufacturing with raised roofs over the kilns to dissipate Plant 1928 heat. Massive louvered windows carried heat away from the workers. A light steel frame system minimized columns and reduced costs. This movement of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Albert Kahn’s work was referred to by both modern masters.10 1915 Ford Model T 5 Henry Ford and unknown man driving Model N at Highland Park Plant Highland Park Plant today 6 In the 1920’s Detroit had arrived as the modern industrial city. Henry Ford was revolutionizing production and society. Fordism, as “The belief that an industrial it became known, involves the mass production and consumption of country must goods. Ford envisioned a system in which well paid employees became concentrate its industry is, consumers of their own products, thereby expanding the market. He in my opinion, believed in a decentralizing industry to enhance production by the terms unfounded. That is only an inter- of the market. While Henry Ford was grounded in Dearborn, he had mediate phase farther reaching plans for his company. He built plants overseas and in the develop- ment. Industry helped to develop the foreign auto market. He was in many ways a pio- will decentralize neer of modern globalism, the system that ultimately would help lead to itself. If the city were to the demise of Detroit. decline, no one would rebuild it according Henry Ford employed a vertically integrated system at Ford to its present Motor Company; incorporating mills, mines, shipping, rail lines and em- plan. That alone discloses our ployee housing. Henry Ford had complete control over his operations, a own judgement lesson learned while struggling with the Detroit Automobile Company. on our cities.” -Henry Ford 11 Wages were among the best in the nation with Henry Ford’s “$5 a day” system.12 Workers, including in the auto industry. With the arrival of new immigrants came new culture. Hast- ings Street on the east side between Warren and Gratiot became the heart of the black culture.